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ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



BY 

RILEY R. ROSS 



NEW YORK CITY 

1910 



' 






Copyright, 1910 
By R. R. Ross 



©CU2685 



TO 
MY LIFELONG FRIEND 

DR. WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD 

PRESIDENT ALLEGHENY COLLEGE 

THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



In 1769, Daniel Boone started from his home to 
explore that part of Virginia then known as the " Country 
of Kentucky." Forty years later, on the 12th of February, 
1809, was born, in Hardin County, now Larue County, 
Kentucky, ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

His parents were known as " Poor whites," which sig- 
nified at that time that they were even poorer than the 
Negro slave, because the poor white man, with no capital 
but his labor, was unable to sell it in competition with the 
free labor of the slave. Doubtless in part, at least, due 
to this condition, Abraham Lincoln's father disposed of his 
farm and in the autumn of 1816, moved to Indiana. 

The house in which the Lincoln family lived was what 
was known as a half-faced camp. That is, it was closed on 
three sides to protect the inmates against the weather; 
no floor, the flat side of a split log, resting on four posts, 
as a table, three-legged stools as chairs, pins driven into 
logs at the corner as a ladder by which Abraham ascended 
to an attic, where was his bed of leaves. The bedstead 
downstairs was simply made by sticks driven between the 
logs at the corner, the inside angle being supported by 
a forked stick driven into the ground, on which rude and 
primitive support a bed was made. 

It is no wonder that in the rigorous Indiana climate, in 
such a comfortless home, Abraham's mother was stricken 
with a fatal illness. Abraham was then scarcely ten years 
old, but it is said that during her sickness he cared for 
her as tenderly as a girl ; tha£ he often sat at her side and 
read the Bible to her for hours. That she had impressed 
upon him the influence of her life is shown by his remark 
in later years, when he said : — " All I am or hope to be 
I owe to my angel mother." 

Abraham Lincoln felt that some religious ceremony 
should be held over her remains, and at once wrote to Par- 
son Elkins, in Kentucky, asking him to preach a funeral 
sermon over her grave. In due time an answer came and 
a date was fixed. Through the pathless forests of Kentucky 
and Indiana this preacher guided his horse to the cabin of 
Thomas Lincoln, where the people for twenty miles around 



6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

had assembled to listen to this, probably the first sermon 
preached in that section. 

It requires but little imagination to picture this scene. 
The newly made grave in the midst of the unbroken forest, 
the sturdy, rough, but kindly disposed settlers assembled 
to listen to the discourse. By the side of his father sat 
Abraham Lincoln — the ten-year-old boy, without hat, coat 
or shoes — drinking in every word as it fell from Parson 
Elkins' lips. In after life, even during the stormy days of 
the rebellion, Abraham Lincoln said that the prayer offered 
at this time, in which he, the motherless boy, was com- 
mended to the care and guardianship of the Supreme, All- 
powerful and Ever-present Being, greatly influenced his 
life for good, and created within him a hopefulness which 
prompted both friends and enemies to stamp him as a 
" fatalist." 

In his own mind, his fate seemed to lead him on, through 
the guidance of a kind Providence to the salvation of the 
country and the liberation of its slaves. 

From this time Abraham Lincoln's history began. His 
library at first was composed only of the Bible, iEsop's 
Fables, Pilgrim's Progress, and, later, "Weem's Life of 
Washington, and The Life of Henry Clay and that of 
Franklin. Each volume was mastered, before being put 
aside, and he seemed to have the rare faculty of extracting 
from these few books many of the truths and teachings 
which helped him in future life. Eeading Weems' Life of 
Washington prompted him, even when a boy, to say : — 
" There must have been something more than common, for 
which our forefathers struggled." 

Abraham Lincoln's father removed to Illinois in 1830 
prior to which time Abraham got a glimpse of the outside 
world by frequent trips down the Ohio river and, later, 
his trip to Natchez and New Orleans. Indeed, this latter 
trip made upon his mind the first great impressions re- 
garding the evils of slavery. 

Later, when a lawyer in Springfield, a negro woman 
came to him, and with tears in her eyes, advised him that 
her son, who had gone down the river on a boat, impru- 
dently went ashore, was snatched by the police in accord- 
ance with the law then in force concerning free negroes 
from other states, was tried, fined and put up for sale 
for the payment of his fine. 

Lincoln at once approached the Governor of the state, 
and insisted that he should interest himself in the poor 
negro boy. When told by the Governor that he, the Gov- 
ernor, had no legal or constitutional right to do anything, 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 7 

Lincoln rose to his feet and exclaimed : " By the Almighty 
I will have that boy back or I will make such an agitation 
in Illinois that the Governor will have the legal and con- 
stitutional right to do something in the premises." 

Among his friends he was able to raise sufficient money 
to accomplish his purpose and in a short time had the pleas- 
ure of seeing the boy back with his mother, but the im- 
pression of this inhuman and unjust act was one which 
never could be effaced, and not until thirty years later, 
when he struck the chains from four millions of slaves, 
did he feel that he had done all that could be done for that 
unfortunate race. 

At the age of twenty-one, George Washington was sent 
on an important mission through pathless forests to visit 
forts in western Pennsylvania. Thus began his public life, 
which finally resulted in his being chosen as the man who 
should bring together the discordant elements of the col- 
onies so as to form one complete whole, namely, the United 
States of America. 

At the same age Abraham Lincoln was winning his 
title, the " Bail Splitter of Illinois," by splitting rails to 
enclose the home he had already built for his father in that 
state. By his dealings with his fellow-men he had by that 
time acquired the title which remained with him through 
life, namely, " Honest Abe." 

During these twenty-one years he laid a broad, firm, 
foundation for future greatness. Born and reared in a 
section of our country which could justly be called the 
frontier, where might often triumphed over right, he never 
acquired a vice. No stimulant ever entered his lips; no 
profanity ever came from them. The part he took, how- 
ever, in the activities of life gave him the physical develop- 
ment necessary for the great work that awaited him. 

His mother's best gift was the old family Bible, which 
he read, re-read and thoroughly mastered, thus laying the 
foundation for a moral character which blossomed out in 
every speech he uttered, in every letter he wrote, and in 
almost every conversation. This book not only influenced 
his life, but molded his mind, made great his manhood and 
gave to America the matchless man. While the precepts of 
the Bible were the foundation for his character, it was so 
fashioned and polished by a mother's teachings, so nourished 
by her prayers and so strengthened by her memory that 
it will live through eternity. While we revere the memory 
of Abraham Lincoln, let us not forget his mother's teach- 
ings laid the foundation for his greatness. The spirit of 
the Bible was built into his boyhood, expanded in his 



8 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

manhood, ripened in his middle-age; sustained him when 
sorrows seared his soul and gave him a grip upon God, 
man, freedom, immortality. 

His education, as I have said, consisted of less than a 
single year's schooling, yet no man of the present day has 
the opportunity for the self-educating process as had Abra- 
ham Lincoln. With the Bible as his first book, followed by 
^Esop's Fables, he acquired from the reading and master- 
ing of these fables the happy faculty which characterized 
him in public life — that of being able always to illustrate 
every occasion and condition with a fitting story. 

Later he took up the study of Mathematics, Geometry 
and Surveying, and was compelled to master these intricate 
subjects unaided except by his few technical books. He 
acquired the habit of arriving at a definite, logical, accurate 
and final conclusion, which training he could never have 
secured in institutions of learning. 

As Lincoln progressed in this mind-molding and char- 
acter-forming course, he took up the study of history of this 
and other countries, and, being without any instructor or 
teacher, he made his own deductions and arrived at his own 
conclusions regarding historical events. 

During this self-educating process he imbibed a spirit 
of liberty, independence, justice and love for humanity 
which ever characterized his conduct in private and public 
affairs. He was distinctively a self-trained man, and the 
value of this training showed itself in his speeches, argu- 
ments and correspondence. If his future could have been 
foreseen and the best possible training outlined to fit him 
for that future work, it could not have been better devised 
or more logically arranged. 

His absolute, unwavering faith in a Supreme Being; 
his thorough knowledge and practical familiarity with the 
Bible ; his logically trained mind, by means of which, in the 
consideration of delicate and intricate problems, he arrived 
invariably at proper conclusions; his patriotic, far-seeing 
and almost prophetic faith in the future of the Republic, 
coupled with his sympathetic nature, his love for justice 
and humanity, were in themselves sufficient to have made 
him a most prominent figure in the nation even though 
there had been no race to release, no national honor to re- 
deem, no country to save. 

In 1832, he enlisted as captain in the Black Hawk War. 
When his term of enlistment had expired, he again enlisted, 
at the request of the Governor, but as a private. When 
mustered out of service his release was signed by Robert 
Anderson, who twenty-nine years later was the defender of 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 9 

the flag at Fort Sumter. On his return he was nominated 
to the Legislature, but defeated. During the next two years 
he acted as a surveyor and was rapidly becoming known as 
a public speaker. 

In 1834, he was again nominated for the Legislature and 
elected, also in 1836. Then it was that he first met the man 
whom he described as " The smallest man he ever saw " — 
Stephen A. Douglas. Here began the public life of two 
men who were destined to influence this country more, per- 
haps, than any other two men in its history, Douglas bat- 
tling to satisfy his ambitions, with the Presidential Chair as 
the prize to win if possible; Lincoln kind-hearted, great- 
souled, his highest ambition the righting of a wrong and 
the befriending of an unfortunate race. In the accom- 
plishing of this great and noble object he realized his 
highest dreams of achievement and renown, and suffered 
for the cause he loved the martyrdom that crowns his 
memory with an undying glory. 

At that session of the Legislature resolutions were in- 
troduced of a pro-slavery character, and an attempt was 
made to fix the stigma of " Abolitionist " on all who 
did not endorse them. These resolutions were carried by 
a large majority. The only votes recorded against them 
were cast by Abraham Lincoln and Daniel Stone. They 
not only voted against the resolutions but entered their 
protest on the journal of the House. This protest was 
that Congress had no power under the Constitution to 
interfere with slavery in the different States, but could 
abolish it in the District of Columbia; that slavery was 
founded on injustice and bad policy. This little protest 
was the outline of a platform upon which he first stood 
alone, and finally, fought and won his great anti-slavery 
battles, whose trophies were four million freedmen, and 
a nation redeemed to justice and humanity. 

Lincoln served four years in the Legislature, during 
which time he pursued the study of law. He studied 
while he had bread to eat; when necessary he went out 
as surveyor to earn more. With no instructor but his 
own thoughts, no college building other than the trees 
under which he worked, this self-training process was 
all the time developing in him that self-reliance and in- 
dependence of thought which characterized him later on. 
This, together with his absolute trust and dependence in 
God made him a tower of strength to the nation and a 
marvel and enigma to those about him. 

In 1836 he was admitted to the bar, removed to Spring- 
field, and, in 1837, became the law partner of Major 



10 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Stuart. He was now recognized as the greatest story-teller 
of the age; a debater with whom few were willing to 
measure swords; a man who would never lend himself 
to injustice, who refused to take a fee on the wrong side 
of the case. 

In 1840, through the publication of a poem in the San- 
gamon Journal, he was challenged to a duel, accepted, 
selected broad-swords as the weapons for the encounter, 
and immediately began taking instruction so as to perfect 
himself with that weapon. Fortunately friends interfered 
and the duel was not fought. 

One of the epochs of Lincoln's life was his visit to Lex- 
ington, in 1846, where he heard Henry Clay deliver a 
speech in favor of gradual emancipation. After the ad- 
dress he secured an introduction to Mr. Clay, and was 
invited to a private interview, which was as unsatisfactory 
as the speech to which he listened. Clay was proud, 
princely, distant, dignified; a man who received others 
with barely the deference due them. Lincoln, on the other 
hand, was humble, lowly, an individual who received others 
with an uncomfortable sense of his own unworthiness. 
Although Lincoln was greatly disappointed in his previous 
estimate of Clay as a man, yet when Clay died in 1852 
the citizens of Springfield thought no man so competent 
to do his memory justice as Abraham Lincoln. The speech 
delivered in the State House before a large assemblage of 
people, was in a measure prophetic. It closed with these 
words : — 

" Such a man the times have demanded, and such, in the Provi- 
dence of God, was given us. But he is gone. Let us strive to 
deserve, as far as mortals may, the continued care of Divine 
Providence, trusting that in future national emergencies He will 
not fail to provide us the instruments of safety and security." 

In 1847 he took his seat in the Thirtieth Congress at 
Washington. At the same time Stephen A. Douglas took 
his seat in the Senate of the United States; one the 
tallest man in Congress, and the other the shortest man 
in the Senate, yet these two men were destined in the next 
few years to hold, spellbound, an entire nation. 

The 4th of March, 1849, brought to a close his congres- 
sional career. During the two years that he had been 
in Congress he had made no great impression upon the 
House nor upon the country and his highest honors were 
yet to be won in another field. His return to Springfield 
found his law practice practically dissipated and he was 
compelled to begin life anew. 

Let us for a moment look back and note the leading 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 11 

facts regarding the history of slavery in this country. The 
German slaver which landed the first cargo of slaves 
in 1619 on the banks of the James River, carried with 
her the inception of secession, while the Mayflower, pre- 
ceding this vessel only a short time, brought the germs 
of freedom, which actuated Lincoln and the Republican 
party during the trying times of 1860. The first great 
landmark in the history of slavery was the ordinance of 
1787, which was intended to check the spread of slavery 
and establish the form of territorial government, and by a 
vote of three northern and five southern states, all in the 
affirmative, ordained the immediate and perpetual pro- 
hibition of slavery in the territories. At the close of the 
Revolution more than half a million slaves were to be 
found in the five southern states, and strange as it may 
seem, the balance of power was almost equally divided 
between the South and the North. Indeed, after the adop- 
tion of the Constitution, the admission of states was as 
follows : — Vermont, a free state, followed by Kentucky, 
a slave state; Tennessee, a slave state, followed almost 
immediately by Ohio, a free state; Louisiana, a slave 
state, followed by Indiana, a free state ; then Mississippi, a 
slave state and Illinois, a free state. At this time there 
were eleven northern and ten southern states. Alabama 
was ready for admission as a slave state. The question 
then came up regarding Missouri and Arkansas, both slave 
states. The North hesitated to grant the balance of 
power to the South, from which discussion came the Mis- 
souri Compromise, of 1820, namely, that all territory 
south of 30° 30' should be slave, and all territory north 
should be free, except the State of Missouri. It was then 
supposed that slavery was absolutely and positively con- 
fined within certain boundaries; that the South should 
be its confines, while the North should be free. 

When Missouri was admitted, on the same date was 
admitted Maine, thus keeping the balance of power even. 
When Arkansas was admitted, on the same day Michigan, 
a free state, was admitted. These tactics were again re- 
peated in 1845 when on the 3d of March, Iowa, a free state, 
and Florida, a slave state, were admitted, but the admis- 
sion of Florida exhausted all of the slave territory in the 
South, while the North had the great undeveloped, and 
practically unknown northwest all dedicated to freedom. 

The bill authorizing the acquisition, annexation and 
admission of Texas contained a guarantee that new states, 
of convenient size, not exceeding four in number, in ad- 
dition to the State of Texas, should be formed out of her 



12 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

territory, and hereafter would be entitled to admission 
as states, the Missouri Compromise to govern the slavery 
question in them. Texas was admitted in 1845, which 
gave the slave states a majority of one, but to counteract 
this, Wisconsin was added, which again restored the equi- 
librium. 

The action of the slavery congress, regarding the in- 
dependence of Texas, resulted in the war with Mexico. 
Here seemed a stroke of policy on the part of the South, 
for if Texas came into the Union, she not only came as a 
slave state, but the resolution provided that four additional 
states should be carved out of her domain, thus adding not 
only one, but five slave states. 

In the meantime, the spirit of invention, which is the 
spirit of progress, was striking death blows to slavery. 
McCormick had invented his great reaper, Elias Howe 
his sewing-machine, steam had changed rivers which 
hitherto had borne only the savage in his birch-bark canoe 
on missions of destruction, into highways of commerce, 
bearing on their bosom vessels laden with the production 
of lands whose riches knew no parallel in the history of 
the world, railroads were belting the country with bands 
of steel. These were industries and inventions to be 
handled by the fingers and controlled by the minds of free 
men, and not by slaves. The South was practically stand- 
ing still, while the North was progressing. 

To make conditions still more complex, in 1849 Cal- 
ifornia, to the surprise of the slave power, adopted a con- 
stitution in which slavery was prohibited, and asked for 
admission to the Union. 

Next comes Henry Clay's Compromise of 1850. This 
Compromise granted the admission of California as a 
free state, a law prohibiting slave trade in the District of 
Columbia, the organization of New Mexico and Utah as 
territories, with no reference to slavery, a more stringent 
fugitive slave law, and an appropriation of $10,000,000 
for the adjustment of Texas boundary. This Compromise 
was accepted by both parties of the campaign as finality 
planks in their platform and the great slavery question 
was once more regarded as forever settled. 

Both conventions of 1852 solemnly resolved that they 
would discountenance and resist, in Congress and out 
of it, whenever, wherever, or however, or under whatever 
color or shape, any further renewal of the slavery agita- 
tion. This determination was echoed and re-echoed, 
affirmed and re-affirmed by the recognized organs of the 
public voice, from the village newspaper to the President- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 13 

ial message, from the country debating school to the 
measured utterances of senatorial discussion. Grave 
doubts, however, found occasional expression of distrust, 
none, perhaps, more forcibly than in the following news- 
paper epigram, describing the word " Finality " : — 

To kill twice dead a rattle-snake, 
And off his scaley skin to take, 
And through his head to drive a stake, 
And every bone within him break, 
And of his flesh mince-meat to make; 
To burn, to sear, to boil and bake, 
And over it the besom shake, 
And sink it fathoms in the lake; 
Whence, after all, quite wide awake, 
Comes back that very same old snake. 

And so with slavery. 

Probably no man of that time was more decided and 
determined never to make another speech on slavery than 
Stephen A. Douglas. However, later he became Chairman 
of the Senate Committee on Territories, and with the 
co-operation of Atkinson, then acting Vice-President, and 
Dixon, United States Senator from Kentucky, a bill was 
finally drafted, in 1854, for the organization of Kansas 
and Nebraska, with the right to choose for themselves their 
form of government, thus disregarding and repealing the 
Missouri Compromise of 1820. 

This was quickly followed in 1857 by the Dred Scott 
Decision which protected the slave owner in the pos- 
session of his property whether in a slave state, an or- 
ganized territory or a free state. By this Dred Scott 
Decision a slave owner could remove a slave into a free 
state and the law protected him in the possession of his 
slaves. The North stood aghast at the possibilities re- 
sulting from this decision, while the South seemed jubi- 
lant over the result. 

There was probably no period in the history of this 
country when a leader was more greatly needed than in 
the beginning of 1858. Lincoln had practically retired 
from the political contest. Douglas again sought re- 
election as United States Senator from Illinois. The 
slave power controlled the President, his Cabinet, the 
Senate, Congress and the Supreme Court. Slavery pre- 
sented an undivided front, compact, solid, determined, 
sullen, and thus far successful. 

The North had her peace parties, her anti-slavery or- 
ganizations, her abolitionists, but no great leader whom 
the masses could follow. 



14 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

At this time, when the fate of our free institutions 
trembled in the balance, when the dark clouds of dis- 
aster and disappointment hovered over us as a Nation, 
when the clanking of the manacles and chains of the 
slave resounded through the North, and to his weeping 
and crying for help came no succor; when God himself 
seemed to have turned a deaf ear to his supplication, 
then, as the savior of the nation, as the liberator of its 
slaves, came that great, immortal character, — Abraham 
Lincoln. 

He was six feet four inches in height, lean, lank, thin, 
almost emaciated in appearance; his extremely long legs, 
long fingers, long face, hollow breast and stooped figure 
made him directly the opposite of his opponent, Doug- 
las, in physical development and stature. 

Douglas was known to the entire nation. He was 
the leading man of the Democratic party, the recog- 
nized leader in Illinois and had crossed swords on the 
floor of the Senate with Webster, Chase, Fessenden and 
Trumbull. Small of stature, his massive head, his 
strong, square features, his eager eyes flashing fire be- 
neath his broad forehead, proclaimed him an orator to 
the manor born. 

Between these two men began a debate which not 
only clarified Lincoln's mind on the injustice and the 
inhumanity of slavery, but permanently placed him in the 
front rank as a national character. 

In a speech of three hours and ten minutes he an- 
swered Judge Douglas's first defense of his Kansas- 
Nebraska proposition. Douglas exclaimed that the people 
of Kansas and Nebraska were competent to govern them- 
selves and would say whether or not slavery should exist 
in that territory. Lincoln admitted that the people of 
those states were competent to govern themselves, " But," 
rising to his full height he proclaimed in a voice which 
vibrated from the Atlantic to the Pacific, " I deny their 
right to govern any other person without that person's 
consent." 

During this year Lincoln made his great contest with 
Douglas for the United States Senatorship from Il- 
linois. Douglas was the champion of popular sovereignty 
and Lincoln was the champion of anti-slavery. Lin- 
coln was asked to address the Illinois State Convention, 
and made his famous " House Divided against Itself " 
speech, which was heralded from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 

Time prevents our going into detail further than to 
say that during the series of debates, covering about ''our 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 15 

months, by these champions of the Republican and Dem- 
ocratic parties, the enormity and injustice of slavery was so 
pictured to the American people that Lincoln soon gathered 
about him, as stanch supporters, thousands who were 
apathetic only a few months before. 

In these debates the two ablest men in the nation were 
the champions. The Constitution, the platform on which 
they stood; the American people, the audience they ad- 
dressed; the great prairies, the amphitheatre in which 
they spoke; and on the solution of the problem involved 
depended the honor of a nation and the happinesss of a 
race. 

The election was followed by the selection of Doug- 
las for United States Senator, but as Lincoln said to 
his friends, he was looking for still greater game, and 
that game was the Presidency. He secured it two years 
later. Indeed, he had so effectively forced the issue dur- 
ing these debates and so held up to the public gaze 
Douglas, his opponent, that while he secured the nom- 
ination for the Presidency from the Northern Demo- 
crats, the election gave him but twelve electoral votes. 

During the latter part of the year 1859 and the be- 
ginning of 1860, Lincoln delivered speeches in different 
sections of the country, always effectively answering 
statements previously made by Douglas either from 
the rostrum or in the public press. On invitation of 
Henry Ward Beecher, Lincoln visited New York City 
on February 27, I860. In an ill-fitting suit of black, 
not improved by several hours in the cramped quarters 
of his suit case, he appeared in Cooper Union before 
a tremendous audience. His nervousness was apparent 
when he began by placing his thumbs under his sus- 
penders, raising them to a level with his ears and then 
letting them go, apparently unconscious of the act, or 
the amusing effect upon his audience, but as he warmed 
up to his subject the audience lost sight of the ill-fitting 
suit, his gaunt appearance, and his peculiar manner. 

In this speech he most carefully reviewed the attitude 
of the founders of the republic, and proved conclusively 
that at no period were they favorable to the extension 
of slavery. This speech, masterful in its array of facts, 
delivered by one whom the masses looked upon as an 
untutored, ignorant product of the western frontier, was 
heard with intense interest by the brightest, brainiest, 
the most learned and the most cultured men of New 
York City. Weeks and months of the most careful 
searching and exhaustive study must have been given 



16 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

to its preparation. His arguments, backed by facts, were 
unanswerable, his logic unassailable and his conclusions 
inevitable. 

The next day his entire speech appeared in four New 
York newspapers, and William Cullen Bryant, then edi- 
tor of the New York Post, stated that the pages of that 
journal were " indefinitely elastic for the publication of 
such words of weight and wisdom as those uttered by Mr. 
Lincoln the previous night." 

From New York he went to New Haven and Hart- 
ford and other points in New England, everywhere lis- 
tened to with rapt attention by the brightest minds of 
the day. In April the Democratic Convention con- 
vened in Charleston, and without naming a candidate 
for President, adjourned to meet in Baltimore. The 
National Constitutional Union Convention met in Bal- 
timore and nominated John Bell for the Presidency. 
The Northern Democrats nominated Stephen A. Doug- 
lass; the Southern Democrats, John C. Breckinridge. 

The Republican Convention met in Chicago and nom- 
inated Lincoln on the third ballot. His notification and 
election are matters of history. February 11, 1861, he 
left his home in Springfield for Washington, and before 
leaving, bade his friends and neighbors good-bye in these 
words : — 

" My friends, no one not in my position can appreciate the 
sadness I feel at this parting. A duty devolves upon me which 
is greater, perhaps, than that which has devolved upon any other 
man since the days of Washington. He never would have suc- 
ceeded except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he 
at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the same 
Divine aid which sustained him, and on the same Almighty 
Being I place my reliance for support; and I hope you, my 
friends, will pray that I may receive that Divine assistance with- 
out which I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain. 
Again, I bid you all an affectionate farewell." 

From Springfield Lincoln visited Indianapolis, Cin- 
cinnati, Columbus, Pittsburg, Cleveland, Buffalo, Al- 
bany, New York, Trenton, Philadelphia and Harrisburg. 
At each place he was met by thousands of people anx- 
ious to get a glimpse of the man destined to steer the 
Ship of State safely through the troubled waters during 
the next four years. 

We have now followed Lincoln through fifty-two years 
of his life and stop to ask ourselves if his ancestors, the 
circumstances of his birth, his education, his environ- 
ments or his friends are to be credited with his wonder- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 17 

ful progress. He began in the poorest of circumstances, 
born a "poor white" in a Kentucky cabin. When fifty- 
two years of age he was elected to the highest office in the 
gift of the American people. His success cannot be attrib- 
uted to his birth, because he was born a little lower than the 
slave, who was his master's property. It cannot be at- 
tributed to his parents, because his father, Thomas Lin- 
coln, was what was considered, in those days, a " Ne'er 
do well." It cannot be attributed to education, because 
his schooling consisted of less than a single year. It 
cannot be credited to environment, because living as he 
did, a frontier life, many of his environments were such 
as degraded rather than elevated his nature. His success 
was not due to wealthy friends, for he had none. He was 
accustomed to say that the " Lord loved the poor people, 
because he made so many of them." When asked to 
write a biography of his life, he said it was described 
practically by a single line from Gray's elegy when he 
wrote the " Short and Simple Annals of the Poor." 
Certainly none of these things contributed to his great- 
ness. W^e, therefore, must look within, rather than with- 
out, for the contributory causes. 

His greatness may be traced from the day when he 
stood beside the closed grave of his mother, listening to 
the eulogy pronounced upon her by Elder Perkins. On 
that occasion Abraham Lincoln was commended to 
the care and keeping of a Higher Power. The lasting 
impression made upon his mind by this prayer can be 
seen through every epoch of his life and in the darkest 
days of the Republic, Abraham Lincoln felt that he was 
the chosen instrument in God's hands for the redeeming 
of the nation. 

Just before the presidential election of 1860, in con- 
versation with Mr. Bateman, then Superintendent of 
Public Instruction of the State of Illinois, Lincoln said: 

" I know there is a God, and that He hates injustice and 
slavery. I see a storm coming, and I know His hand is in it. 
If He has a place for me to work, and I think He has, I believe 
I am ready. I am nothing, but truth is everything. I know 
that I am right, because I know that liberty is right, for Christ 
teaches it, and Christ is God. I have told them that a house 
divided against itself cannot stand, and Christ and reason say 
the same, and they will find it so. Douglas does not care whether 
slavery is voted up or voted down, but God cares and humanity 
cares and I care, and with God's help I shall not fail. I 
may not see the end, but it shall come and I shall be vindicated. 
A revelation could not make plainer to me that slavery or the 
government must be destroyed. The future would be something 
awful, as I look at it, but for this rock on which I stand " 
2 



18 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

(alluding to a Testament which he held in his hand). " It seems 
as if God had borne with this thing (slavery) until the very 
teachers of religion have come to defend it from the Bible and 
to claim for it a divine character and sanction, and now the cup 
of iniquity is full, and the vials of wrath will be poured out." 

Thus spoke Abraham Lincoln, in the quiet of his room, 
to his bosom friend, Mr. Bateman. These words are the 
index to his character. They show the rock on which he 
stood, the source from which he gained his strength and 
the course which he meant to pursue. 

Here let us glance at the condition of affairs at this 
time when he took upon himself the oath of office. He left 
a divided North, faced a seceding and angry South and en- 
tered the capitol, honeycombed with secession. Indeed, 
it was said that more than half the people of Washing- 
ton secretly wished for the success of the rebellion. The 
Senators from South Carolina had resigned their seats; 
the Secretary of the Treasury for the United States, 
Howell Cobb, resigned on the 10th of December, de- 
claring his inability to relieve the treasury from its em- 
barrassment. The Secretary of War, Floyd, had. sent 
115,000 muskets from the northern armories to southern 
arsenals. The Attorney-General, Black, had given his 
official opinion that Congress had no right to carry on 
war against any state. The President, Buchanan, was a 
weak instrument and consented to have his hands tied. 
The Secretary of the Navy had sent available war vessels 
into places where they would be of the least value to the 
north. The secession of South Carolina was quickly fol- 
lowed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisi- 
ana and Texas. The forts and arsenals in the seceded 
states were seized. Jefferson Davis was elected President 
of the southern confederacy and yet responsible and con- 
fidential positions in the government at Washington were 
still held by men whose hearts were closely linked with 
the confederacy. So general was the feeling of sympathy 
for the South that it seemed there was no man willing to 
denounce these acts of treason. Finally, when the Sec- 
retary of the Interior in the Cabinet demanded that the 
forts of Charleston should be evacuated and President 
Buchanan was too weak to take action against him, one 
man in the Cabinet, Attorney-General Edwin M. Stan- 
ton, rose and said : — 

" Mr. President, it is my duty as your legal adviser, to say that 
you have no right to give up the property of the government or 
abandon the soldiers of the United States to its enemies, and 
the course proposed by the Secretary of the interior, if followed, 
is treason and will involve you and all concerned in treason." 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 19 

This statement of Mr. Stanton sent an electric thrill 
throughout the country, which was felt in every section. 

March 4, 1861, Lincoln took the oath as President. His 
speech on that occasion is a matter of history, concilia- 
tory in point, almost pathetic in its appeal to the South, 
but with a determination to protect the government and 
the government's interests. He closed with these his- 
toric words : — 

" We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. 
Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds 
of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every 
battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearth- 
stone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the 
Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better 
angels of our nature." 

The day before Lincoln uttered these words, Alexander 
II, autocrat of all the Russians, by imperial decree, eman- 
cipated his serfs, while the United States, a Christian 
country, supposedly far in advance of Russia in civili- 
zation and humanity, was divided on this question of slav- 
ery, and the South headed by Jefferson Davis, was plan- 
ning for the greatest war of modern times, not only to 
perpetuate, but extend this nefarious traffic in human 



Here began the great work of Lincoln's life. Reared in 
a log cabin, and now occupying the most responsible place 
in the nation in the most perilous period of that nation's 
existence. 

Thus far we have seen Lincoln as a man among men, 
great-souled, kind-hearted, none too low to be beneath his 
notice; a friend of the friendless, a defender of the down- 
trodden. Now we must look upon Lincoln as a states- 
man. Indeed, some at the time called him a politician, 
but if so, he was a politician of the highest order. In his 
selection of a Cabinet, his resolve was to have about him 
only men who were true, honest and patriotic. 

William H. Seward, the most prominent man in the 
Republican party, was selected as Secretary of State. 
Salmon P. Chase, the acknowledged leader of the Republi- 
can party in Ohio, Ex-Governor, now United States Sen- 
ator, a great, dignified leader, he selected as Secretary of 
the Treasury. Simon Cameron, who continued for less 
than a year, then Edwin M. Stanton, as Secretary of War. 
Montgomery Blair, a former Democrat, of Maryland, as 
Postmaster General. 

Seward had but little faith in Lincoln as a man to 
handle the affairs of the government. The country in 



20 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

general looked upon Seward as, to all intents and pur- 
poses, the backbone of the administration. The first test 
of power came when the question of sending provisions 
to Fort Sumter was considered by the Cabinet. Major 
Anderson's report reached Lincoln the day after his in- 
auguration. The officer said that unless succored, starva- 
tion would compel him to surrender in a few weeks. 

General Scott, commander-in-chief, wrote, regarding 
his report : — " Evacuation seems inevitable, and in this 
our chief engineer concurs," but Abraham Lincoln did 
not concur. Indeed, he could not abandon so important 
a stronghold as Fort Sumter without a struggle. 

He turned to his Cabinet for counsel, and almost to a 
man they agreed that the fort must be evacuated immedi- 
ately and provisions should not be sent. The notable ex- 
ception was Postmaster Blair, a Democrat of the Jeffer- 
sonian school, and the youngest man of the Cabinet. Here 
was a crisis indeed. 

In almost the first Cabinet meeting, Lincoln found 
against him not only the military experts, but all except 
the youngest member of his Cabinet. He asked for time 
to consider and again consulted Scott, who said : — " The 
fort can neither be provisioned nor reinforced," and sub- 
mitted an order for evacuation for the President's sig- 
nature. Instead Lincoln called another meeting of his 
Cabinet, at which Blair and Chase voted with the Presi- 
dent, the other five against him, Seward being the leader 
of the opposition. At the next meeting six were present; 
three agreed with Lincoln, one was non-committal and 
one for evacuation on a purely military basis, while Seward 
still advised that evacuation was necessary. 

When the Cabinet adjourned, Lincoln instructed the 
Secretaries of War and Navy to arrange for a relief vessel 
carrying supplies to General Anderson. Not only did 
Lincoln's advice prevail, but with the concurrence and ap- 
proval of practically every man in the Cabinet, except Sew- 
ard. As we know, supplies were sent, Sumter was bom- 
barded, the Civil War began, and from this moment the 
history of the United States is a history of Abraham Lin- 
coln. The shot which opened the war woke an echo from 
sea to sea and cemented together all parties, creeds and 
classes for the defense of their country. 

While this leaden hail was falling on the walls of Fort 
Sumter, a man, second only in importance to Abraham 
Lincoln, was seen to wend his way through the streets 
of Washington to the White House, and when he emerged 
from that conference he announced to the world that he 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 21 

had promised the President his support, and called on all 
his friends and followers to do likewise. This man was 
Stephen A. Douglas, and of him it might truly be said : — 
" One blast upon his bugle horn was worth a million 
men." 

Still a greater proof of Lincoln's statesmanship, tact and 
diplomacy was seen when Chase and Seward placed in his 
hands their resignation, as a result of the Republican 
caucus, really due to the influence of Chase, demanding 
Seward's dismissal. Lincoln listened to the nine Senators 
who made the report, and then asked them to return in the 
evening. At the same time he called a meeting of his Cab- 
inet, with the exception of Seward. The matter was dis- 
cussed until midnight, the members of the Cabinet, in- 
cluding Chase, defending their absent member Seward. 
As a result of this conference neither resignation was ac- 
cepted, and what was intended to dismiss one of the strong- 
est men from the Cabinet, resulted in cementing of 
friendship of each for the other, and all for their Chief. 

Probably the most difficult man for Lincoln to handle 
in the Cabinet was Stanton, Secretary of War. That Lin- 
coln appreciated his difficulties was shown by his reply to 
some Congressmen who wished an appointment made. 
Stanton had given an emphatic " no." They appealed to 
Lincoln who said: — 

" Gentlemen, it is my duty to submit. I cannot add to Mr. 
Stanton's troubles. His position is one of the most difficult in 
the world. Without him I should be destroyed. He performs his 
task superhumanly. Now, do not mind this matter, for Mr. 
Stanton is right, and I cannot wrongly interfere with him." 

At one time a committee of western men, headed by Con- 
gressman Owen Lovejoy of Illinois, called upon the Presi- 
dent and urged the mingling of the eastern and western 
troops. The plan interested Lincoln, who wrote a letter 
recommending this plan to the Secretary of War, Stanton. 
As this scheme seemed impracticable to Mr. Stanton, he 
refused to carry it out. 

" But we have the President's order, sir," said Mr. 
Lovejoy. 

" Did Lincoln give you an order of that kind ? " said 
the Secretary. 

" He did, Sir." 

" Then he is an old fool," was the response. 

" Do you mean to say that the President is an old fool ? " 
asked the Congressman in amazement. 

"Yes, sir, if he gave you such an order as that." 



22 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Returning to the executive mansion he reported the re- 
sult of the conversation. 

"Did Stanton say that?" asked President Lincoln. 

" He did, Sir, and repeated it." 

" Well, Stanton is nearly always right, and if he said I 
am an old fool then I must be one." 

One of the sorest trials in Stanton's life was when Lin- 
coln's great human nature prompted him to interfere with 
the death sentence. Many instances of this kind are re- 
corded, to only one of which we will refer. It was at a 
time when an old man came trembling before him and 
asked for a pardon for his son who had been sentenced to 
be shot for desertion. Lincoln asked the old man to tell 
his story. It was this : — 

" We had three boys ; one was killed in battle, one still serves 
in the army under Sherman and the third (the youngest) has 
been tried for desertion and sentenced to be shot. I am here at 
his mother's request; the carrying out of this sentence will kill 
her, as he is her favorite boy. The boy never deserted, he could 
not desert; it is not in his blood." 

Without another word Lincoln wrote a telegram to 
General Butler, ordering the sentence cancelled and the 
boy set free. As the boy was sentenced to be shot two 
days later the father hesitated to return home lest Lin- 
coln might change his mind and send a different telegram 
the next day, and so expressed himself to the President, to 
which Lincoln replied : — "If he lives to get my first tele- 
gram he will live to be older than Methuselah before he 
gets a second telegram countermanding the order." 

Lincoln told the story of how a great, homely giant of a 
man once put a pistol to his face and threatened to shoot. 
Lincoln coolly asked why he thus threatened his life. 
He replied that he had promised his wife and God that if 
he ever met a man more homely than himself he would 
shoot him on sight, to which statement Lincoln replied : — 
" If I am more homely than you I should die. Go ahead 
and shoot." 

Being master of himself he was easily master of those 
about him. His Cabinet realized his strength, but knew 
not yet the source of his power. The press reviled, criti- 
cised, condemned and ridiculed him, but could not move 
him from his purpose. Neither friends nor enemies, poli- 
ticians nor statesmen, saints nor sinners, changed the 
man from what he believed God wished him to do. He 
stood on the high plain of truth, justice and humanity, 
far above the masses — a self-made man, a God-endowed 
hero. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 23 

That the emancipation of the slaves was secondary and 
the saving of the Union his first object, is shown by a letter 
written about this time to Horace Greeley. In it he 
said : — 

" My paramount object is to save the Union, and neither to 
save nor destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without 
freeing any slave, I would do it; if I could save it by freeing 
all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing 
some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do 
about slavery and the colored race I do because I believe it helps 
to save the Union; and what I forbear I forbear because I do not 
believe it would help to save the Union." 

Even before this letter was penned Lincoln had in his 
possession the original draft of the Emancipation Proc- 
lamation. It had been written in June, submitted to the 
Cabinet for criticism and discussion in July, but he did 
not feel that the time was yet ripe to issue it. 

Probably in no one thing did Lincoln show himself the 
master of himself and the master of men more truly than 
in his handling of the Emancipation Proclamation. He 
was besieged by statesmen and politicians, clergymen and 
military men, by editors and diplomats, and, in fact, by 
all classes and creeds, occupations and professions, but 
was still unwilling to yield to their requests until the 
proper time had arrived. To his closest friends he said he 
must wait for a victory before issuing the Proclamation. 

The battle of Antietam was fought and won, but only 
vague reports drifted in to the President; nothing on 
which he could absolutely rely. It was his custom to 
spend his nights at the Soldiers' Home, a few miles out of 
Washington, but this night he spent with his boy Tad, 
now six years old, at the White House. As night closed 
upon him, and his last visitor had left, he placed the 
sleepy, tired boy to rest for the night, and alone paced 
the floor, his vigil broken only by his occasional look at the 
sleeping boy, unconscious of the great burden the father 
was bearing. Ten, eleven and twelve o'clock passed. 
About one o'clock in the morning a messenger arrived from 
McClellan's army with the definite news that Lee had been 
driven across the Potomac out of Maryland and into Vir- 
ginia. 

He immediately decided to call a meeting of the Cabinet, 
and at high noon on the 22d day of September, 1862, a 
Cabinet meeting was held, the significance of which can- 
not be expressed in words. When Lincoln entered he car- 
ried in his hand a recently published volume by Artemus 
Ward and read from it until the entire Cabinet, with the 



24 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

exception of Stanton, was convulsed with laughter. Un- 
able longer to withstand the levity of the situation, Stan- 
ton said : — " Gentlemen, I feel that the condition of the 
country demands our most serious attention." Where- 
upon Lincoln laid aside his volume. His face assumed 
a rigid, deathlike paleness characteristic when some mo- 
mentous question was to be considered, and in his homely, 
frank and honest manner said — " Stanton, you are right, 
but I had to read something of this nature, else the bur- 
den would have been too great to bear, and I would have 
yielded to a broken heart." He then drew from his 
pocket the original draft of the Emancipation Proclama- 
tion. He said " Gentlemen, I have not brought you 
together for discussion or advice. I promised myself and 
God that if Lee were driven across the Potomac I would 
crown the act with the liberation of the slaves, and am 
now ready to fulfill my promise. The act is mine and I 
stand responsible for the result." 

Thus, before his Cabinet he stood in the lime-light of 
civilization, placed a mile-stone on the pathway of prog- 
ress, a beacon on the hill-top of liberty, a guide-post for 
future generations, and thus showed the majesty and the 
greatness of his manhood, the breadth and strength of his 
mind, the depth and tenderness of his humanity and his 
confidence and faith in Almighty God. 

This preliminary proclamation was signed, and pub- 
lished in the newspapers that evening. It was received 
with profound interest by the whole country, rejoicing by 
the North and gnashing of teeth by the slaveholders of 
the South. 

The final proclamation was issued January 1, 1863. 

No wonder during these months Lincoln grew sad and 
grave when disaster was followed by defeat, and defeat 
by treachery and treason. First Sumter was bombarded 
and captured, then fort after fort fell into the hands of 
the confederacy. Virginia, which Lincoln hoped to re- 
tain in the Union, seceded; Harper's Ferry was burned; 
next the Baltimore riot, the destruction of the great navy 
yard and ships at Norfolk. The railroad bridges, and in- 
deed, the railroads themselves, leading into Baltimore, were 
destroyed; Maryland served a notice upon Lincoln that 
troops should not pass through Baltimore or Maryland to 
defend the National Capital.. Lee, educated at West Point, 
hesitating, undecided, finally went with his state, and cast 
his lot with the confederacy. 

John B. McGruder, because of his ability, and the con- 
fidence which General Scott and Lincoln had in him, was 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 25 

assigned a light battery for the special defense of Wash- 
ington. He, with others, went with the confederacy. 
Even the Governor of Maryland denied the 8th from 
Massachusetts and the 7th from New York the right to 
land on her shores. 

While Washington was threatened from without and 
honey-combed with traitors within, Lincoln, knowing 
these regiments had left Massachusetts and New York, 
paced the floor, unable to understand the unaccountable 
delay. Day faded into night, night changed to day, the 
telegraph wires from Baltimore were cut, so that com- 
munication with the North was severed, and for four 
long, dreary days, the authorities at Washington, restless, 
sleepless and anxious looked out upon the broad Potomac, 
asking the question, "Will they ever come?" 

Finally, April 25th, when the famous 7th from New 
York, with their well formed ranks, perfect military step 
and gaily floating flags, with inspiring music of their 
regimental band, swept up Pennsylvania Avenue to the 
White House, they brought fresh hope, a real help and 
substantial aid to the nation. 

These discouragements were followed by such disasters 
as the battles of Big Bethel, Bull Eun, Wilson's Creek and 
McClellan's seven days of defeat in changing his base to 
the James River. It was defeat, defeat, defeat; disaster 
after disaster; enemies at home reviled him; friends 
began to doubt him; the nation listened, almost hope- 
lessly wondering if victory ever could be secured. God 
only sustained Lincoln in these trying hours. 

No wonder that in rapid succession Hallock succeeded 
McClellan, Burnside followed Hallock, Hooker followed 
Burnside, and then Meade, who turned the tide of battle 
and brought victory out of defeat at Gettysburg, which 
battle became the turning point of the war. At the same 
time Grant captured Vicksburg and from this time on 
God's messenger, electricity, brought tidings of victory 
instead of defeat. Hooker fought his Battle above the 
Clouds on Lookout Mountain, Sherman cut his way to the 
sea, and Lincoln found Grant, who, as he said, "would 
fight," and placed him in command of the armies of the 
nation. 

With a critic's eye he had watched Grant from the time 
of his first victory at Paducah in September, 1861, as he 
captured Fort Henry and Fort Donaldson, won Shiloh 
and Iuka, celebrated the nation's birthday by allowing the 
waters of the Mississippi to flow untroubled to the sea by 
his great victory at Vicksburg, won for himself unfading 



26 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

laurels at Chattanooga, and yet during all of this time 
Lincoln had never personally met Grant. When at a 
public reception in Washington, Grant appeared with 
hundreds of others, to pay his respects to the President, 
he was quickly recognized and as Lincoln took him by the 
hand the two great characters of the war met; one the 
embodiment of patience, for Lincoln had waited three years 
to find his ideal, and the other the embodiment of deter- 
mination and success, for Grant had worked three years 
to merit this opportunity. Fortunate indeed was the 
country that at this first interview between Grant and 
Lincoln each should have been so favorably impressed 
with the other. In their hands was the destiny of the 
country. They were co-operating for the preservation of 
the Union and the liberty of man. Probably no meeting 
in the history of the nation was so momentous and so 
memorable as this, which marked the beginning of the 
end of the Civil War. 

The next day Grant was made Commander-in-Chief and 
began systematically, persistently, and with a bull-dog's 
tenacity, to lay his plans for the capture of Eichmond and 
the surrender of Lee. 

What Grant did was summarized by Eoscoe Conkling, 
at Chicago, when he nominated him, using the follow- 
ing verse : — 

If asked what State he hails from 

My sole reply shall be 
He comes from Appomattox, 

And its famous apple-tree. 

The great, immortal battle of Gettysburg, upon the 
issue of which hung the fate of the nation, was fought 
July 1st, 2d and 3d, 1863, with a loss on the Union 
side of three thousand killed and fourteen thousand 
wounded. The State of Pennsylvania set apart a 
portion of this battle-field as a national cemetery. In 
November following, Senator Edward Everett was selected 
as the speaker at the dedication. Accompanying him was 
Abraham Lincoln, and as he was expected to say a few 
words, on his way there, in the midst of conversation, he 
scribbled down on a piece of paper a few words, which, 
spoken on that memorable occasion, form one of the bright- 
est gems in the field of literature. 

Spoken amid absolute silence, these words elicited not 
a single note of applause, but they were the reflex of his 
thoughts, of his great nature, at that time as little appre- 
ciated by the masses as the great Emancipator himself. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 27 

While the studied oration of Senator Everett, delivered 
amid the applause of the people, has been forgotten, this 
gem in the field of American literature still lives, and 
ever will live. 

By act of Congress this entire Gettysburg speech has 
been cast in bronze and ordered erected in every national 
cemetery and military park in the United States. It has 
also been placed at the entrance to our great colleges, 
universities, clubs and libraries. Not only in bronze has 
it been thus immortalized, but to-day it is engraved upon 
the tablet of the memory of every school boy and is a 
part of every collection of choice literature. Never before, 
so far as history records, has such an honor been given 
to the words or writings of any one man. 

These words embrace not simply Lincoln's thought, but 
his soul, his life, his nature, his character, himself. Patri- 
otic in sentiment, sublime in diction, with a father's tender 
reference to the past and a divine hopefulness for the 
future, a tribute of praise for the living, and a wreath of 
affection for the dead, they appeal to the best in our nature 
and show his prophetic vision of the vitality, stability, 
sincerity and greatness of our nation. 

The nation stood in silence as he spoke. His words were 
too deep and too solemn for applause, too sacred for war; 
but when the sunshine of peace again hovered over our 
land, when his work was completed and God said " Come 
up higher," then, and not until then did the nation and 
the world appreciate the greatness of the man who for fifty 
years was in God's training for the great work of releasing 
a race and redeeming and saving a nation. 

In June, 1864, the Eepublican National Convention 
assembled at Baltimore, and on the first ballot nominated 
Abraham Lincoln as President for a second term. He was 
almost unanimously elected, securing two hundred and 
twelve out of two hundred and forty-three elective votes, 
carrying every state except New Jersey, Delaware and 
Kentucky. 

This verdict of the people he accepted as an approval 
of his actions and efforts to preserve the country and 
uphold the constitution. In vindication of his Emanci- 
pation Proclamation the thirteenth amendment absolutely 
abolishing slavery, was adopted January 31, 1865. When 
the final vote was announced, members, regardless of par- 
liamentary rules, sprang to their feet and embraced each 
other, amid the clapping of hands, waving of handker- 
chiefs and cheers which arose from all parts of the house. 

During this excitement Ebon C. Ingersol, of Illinois, 



28 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

securing the attention of the speaker said " In honor of 
this immortal and sublime event I move the house do now 
adjourn," which motion was put and unanimously carried. 
When this amendment was ratified by three-fourths of the 
whole number of states a final proclamation was made 
that it become a valid part of the constitution. Thus, 
after two hundred and fifty years, slavery, the curse of 
our country, the virus of which had well-nigh poisoned 
the life blood of our nation, was by official amendment to 
the Constitution swept out of existence, and the " new 
birth of freedom," which Lincoln invoked in his Gettys- 
burg address was finally accomplished. 

This country was established on the principle that all 
men are created equal with certain inalienable rights, 
among which are life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. 
George Washington, the first President, was the embodi- 
ment of this principle. At the end of his second term, in 
his farewell address, he used these words: — 

" Observe good faith and justice toward all nations ; cultivate 
peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this 
conduct. It will be worthy of a free, intelligent and at no distant 
period a great nation to give to mankind a magnanimous example 
of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence." 

Acting upon and following this advice, the great men 
who have followed him have reiterated this principle so 
that while our country was founded on liberty, justice, 
right and equality, even during the darkest days of slavery 
our people did not drift so far from their original moor- 
ings as to lose sight of this foundation. 

That Abraham Lincoln was guided by the same prin- 
ciple we quote his closing words in his second inaugural 
address : — 

" With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firm- 
ness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive 
on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, 
to care for him who shall have fought the battle, for his widow 
and his orphan. To do all which may achieve a lasting peace 
among ourselves and with all nations." 

This is the principle which actuated him in his every 
thought and act. Following the broad foundation of jus- 
tice laid down by our forefathers, the country has grown 
through successive administrations until under the lamented 
McKinley we assumed the position of a world power; a 
country second to none in wealth, justice and influence. 
Unfortunately our country stands alone in its influence, 
and cannot be compared in growth with nations of cor- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 29 

responding years. However, almost at the same time when 
Washington uttered his farewell address, Napoleon had 
crossed the Alps and at the head of the army of Italy 
addressed his soldiers in these words: — 

" Soldiers, you are half starved and half naked. The Govern- 
ment owes you much, but can do nothing for you. I am to lead 
you into the most fertile valleys of the world. There you will 
find flourishing cities; there you will reap honor, glory and 
riches." 

Compare the principles enunciated by Washington when 
he asked our country to observe good faith and justice 
toward all nations, and the address of Napoleon urging 
his soldiers to rapine, plunder and destruction. What 
has been the result? Napoleon built on the principle that 
might makes right; Lincoln on the principle that right 
makes might. Napoleon said " God is on the side of the 
heaviest artillery." Lincoln said " God is on the side of 
justice, right and humanity." France, following the ad- 
vice given by Napoleon to his soldiers, retains to-day not 
a foot of soil gained in her conquests, but stands on a level 
with Spain and Italy, the natural result of following the 
course outlined above. The United States, following the 
advice of Washington, " has given to mankind a magnani- 
mous example of a people always guided by an exalted 
justice and benevolence." She has extended her boundary 
from Ocean to Ocean, reached a helping hand to the 
oppressed islands of the sea, her flag honored and respected 
in every wind that blows. Clad in the vestments of right 
and truth, she had taken her place beside the greatest 
nations of the earth, and to-day stands forth before the 
world as the land of the free and the home of the brave. 

One thought seemed always uppermost in Lincoln's 
mind, — the preservation and the unifying of the nation. 
By kindness and tact he held together the discordant 
elements of his Cabinet and thus united the various factions 
and parties of the North; averted a foreign war by his 
successful conducting of the Trent affair; retained the 
border states in the Union by his masterful handling of 
the Emancipation Proclamation; preserved the friendship 
and utilized the influence of McClellan; discovered and 
defended Grant against those who tried to supersede him; 
upheld Sherman in his determination to cut the con- 
federacy in two; found and befriended Sheridan; ap- 
pointed Meade; and in short, became the soldier's friend, 
the nation's idol, and the world's wonder. Yet in the 
midst of rejoicing over the war's ending, and the successful 
achievement of his plans, while at the pinnacle of his fame, 



30 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

at the zenith of his glory, at the height of his power, he 
was struck down by the assassin's blow, a blow fatal to 
itself, fatal to the reconstruction of the South, fatal to the 
best friend the South ever had. 

Some of us can remember the pall of blackness which 
spread over the country on that Saturday morning in 
April when his death was announced, but like the attack 
on Sumter which heralded the beginning of the Civil War, 
at the same time uniting all classes and creeds in the 
defense of the country, the blow which deprived the nation 
of its leader showed that his friends were numbered by 
the million. Even his enemies in the South deplored the 
act; the nation stood weeping with the passion of an 
angry grief. Foreign representatives strove with each other 
to do him honor. Soldiers who had unflinchingly met 
death on a hundred fields of battle, civilians never known 
to weep over their own personal troubles or private cares, 
mothers who with aching heart but tearless eyes gave their 
boys that the country might live; the strong, the weak; 
the old, the young ; the rich, the poor, all alike broke down 
and cried like children when they heard of the murder of 
Abraham Lincoln. Children, alarmed, found their parents' 
eyes red and cheeks wet with weeping as they were kissed 
awake that Saturday morning, and heard in a choked 
voice, trembling with suppressed emotion, the words — 
"LINCOLN IS DEAD." 

When the attending surgeon made known to the iron- 
hearted Stanton that the wound was fatal, his great breast 
heaving with emotion, he exclaimed : — " He must not, 
he cannot die ! " His words were prophetic. To-day 
Lincoln lives not only in the literature of our country, in 
the storied history of our nation, in the songs of our people 
and on the enduring canvas, but his name is as imperishable 
as the marble into which his likeness has been chiseled. 

Educated in the great school of experience, all, from the 
country school on the hillside to the great university in the 
city, vied each with the other to do him honor. With a creed 
too broad for any religious denomination he is to-day the 
ideal to which religious denominations aspire and to whom 
they point with pride. With his love of right, justice and 
humanity he made not only this nation, but the world, 
his debtor. He was a Cromwell in courage, a Demosthenes 
in eloquence, a Plato in reasoning, a Solon in wisdom and 
statecraft, a Napoleon in leadership and a Bismark in firm- 
ness, and a Washington in patriotism. At the same time 
he was like a mother in tenderness and devotion to duty, 
a father in kindness, and a child in simplicity. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 31 

No wonder at his death Stanton said " He now belongs 
to the ages." He was a God-made man, a world-lamented 
hero; greater than the country he saved he now belongs to 
the world ; greater than the age in which he lived, he now 
belongs to eternity. He built his own monument — a race 
released from bondage, a nation redeemed to justice and 
humanity, a country united, and a flag from which not a 
single stripe has been erased nor a single star obscured. 
So long as this flag floats over a free and liberty-loving 
people, so long as right and love of humanity find a place 
in the human heart, so long as justice and liberty — 
those eternal truths given by God himself — stand as a 
foundation for our Republic, so long will be remembered 
the life and work of Abraham Lincoln. 



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